Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the large family car segment and utilize the same 5-door hatchback body style and the rear wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific electric engine choice they offer. The first one has a Tesla-engineered powertrain under the hood, a PMSM Electric unit in formation 0 / 1 with 261hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a IM Electric unit in formation 0 / 1 with 286hp engine designed by BMW.

A starting point here would be to take a look at the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests which were performed on both of the cars, with the Tesla being a slightly better choice apparently. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the large family car segment, which is generally a good thing safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? On the other hand, taking kerb weight as an important factor into account, the German car offers a considerable difference of 18% more metal.

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that Tesla is significantly less fault-prone, at least on all of the models level. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Tesla with an average rating of 1.3, and models under the BMW badge with 4.1 out of 5. The same official information place Model 3 as average reliability-wise, and i4 is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the American car rank it on average as 3.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 1.0 out of 5.

Tesla is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 225 kilometers per hour, 35km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy things look pretty much the same for both cars, especially if you take into account all the free charging points provided by the manufacturer and/or the local government's environmental programs. One of the essential things to consider when it comes to this type of vehicles would be range, although here it's more or less the same, orbiting around 500 kilometers on a single charge.

Tesla appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. But one thing that actually could is the performance, with Tesla outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. The German car offers somewhat better range. All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Tesla. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.